How To Keep the Tech You Work So Hard For

You have spent many hours slaving away at work to save as many pennies as you can so that you may go splurge on that awesome new gadget you have been drooling over for months. You end up not only buying the device, but you also go over budget by purchasing the extended warranty and a protective shell just in case you drop it.

Well, that's all fine and good, if you are worried about you doing something to damage your new toy. But what about the things you don't plan for? Like your shiny new gadget getting...... stolen. No extended warranty will protect the data stored within the device, and certainly no protective bumper will return it to your hands. So what can you do?

First off, think proactive, not retroactive. Hindsight really is 20/20 so make sure you take a few extra steps to protect what you worked to hard to acquire. As a previous victim of a burglary, I can assure you that I will not make the same mistakes again.

Once the purchase has been made, after you get home and set up your preferences, the next thing you should do, regardless of whether it's a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop... is setup a password. The simplest thing is often the most overlooked. Yes, you will have to enter your password each time you go to do something with the device, and yes it can be a pain... but wouldn't you be glad to know that entry level security is there if your laptop goes missing? Just don't limit this to your computer! Enable the lockscreen passcode on your smartphone and tablet as well. Because really, you're more likely to leave your phone behind in a restaurant than your laptop.

Love it or hate it, this screen is your best friend

Congrats, you have taken the first step to securing your stuff. But that is elementary stuff, Watson! You should always have a password on anything that has your sensitive information. So now let's dive further. A password is a great start, but now what? Let's work on getting it back and perhaps catching thief in the meantime. Let's get your computer squared away first.

I personally use PreyProject. It's a lightweight program that runs in the background of your computer. And since it's free and runs on all the major platforms, you really have no excuse not to get it. Just install Prey on your computer, follow a few small setup instructions and that's it. It just sits there... waiting... for whenever you may need it. It's kind of like Batman. And just like Batman, if your laptop ever goes missing, you'll be glad it has your back. Once activated, Prey can do anything from make a loud noise (in case you can't find on that mess of a desk), to lockdown everything and remote wipe your hard drive. That seems a bit excessive to me, but that all depends on if you have trade secrets on your computer. It will also take a picture if your computer has a webcam, provide an IP address as well as a physical location. Hopefully using one, or all, of these methods, you will get your computer back and teach a thief a lesson.

As far as mobile devices go, Apple provides Find My iPhone as a free download, so by all means, get it. But for those with Android devices, might I suggest Cerberus anti theft. I have tried many other anti theft and security apps, but I like this one the most. Yes, it does have a small one-time fee, but I'd rather pay that than fork out for a replacement phone. Cerberus is very similar to Prey as far as the capabilities of the program. But Cerberus has a few extra tricks up its sleeve. You are able to record audio and video, take pictures, get location history, check the call log, sound an alarm, display a message, remote wipe and many others. I am quite confident that if this ever happens to me...

... then the police could catch him before the sun went down. One of the great things about Cerberus, is you can hide it from the app drawer. Meaning that, if like in the video, the thief snatches the phone out of your hand while it is unlocked... he wouldn't know there was any anti theft app installed.

So there you go, PreyProject for computers, Find My iPhone for iOS devices, and Cerberus for Android devices. I'd love to hear what you use for security. Leave a comment below and tell me!